In London!
Posted by Cottontimer on 25 Jan 2006 | Tagged as: London
Hello from London. This is the first time I’ve been online since arriving last Wednesday, January 18th (is that the right date? I’m still totally disoriented). The weather is cold but not unbearable. Prices, on the other hand, are hard to take. Everything is about twice what I think they should be. I keep thinking they’re acceptable in US dollar amounts but then I remember that they’re actually in pounds which makes them twice as expensive. One hour of internet is about $4! One day of internet at the hotel is 40 USD. *faint*
In protest, I didn’t take the Tube this morning to save about 10 USD. Instead, we walked from the hotel to Hyde Park then over to Kensington High Street where we had a great lunch at a patisserie and now we’re in an internet cafe. All in all, we’re enjoying our time here where I don’t have to repeat myself 20 times and still be misunderstood.
Next week, we move to our townhouse on the River Thames. It’ll be the first time we’ve lived in a proper house with garden and stunning view. It may take a while to get used to doing my own housekeeping, though!
Better run now and take Stephen to the toy store as promised!
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glad to hear you arrived safely
I’m glad to hear you’ve arrived safely as well!
I’m not surprised you find the prices high.
Have you seen the toy store on Regent Street? I forget the name but you can’t miss it, it’s huge! 7 floors. You need a whole day just to have a quick look
I did wonder if you would be a bit stunned by the cost of living! I think it is meant to be the most expensive city to live in…hence my insistence on good shoes and an A-Z! Still I hope there will be many aspects that will make up for it…all my best wishes!
Good to hear from you, and glad the sticker shock didn’t give you a massive heart attack
The wonderful thing about a house with garden, is your very own outdoor play space for the kiddo
Hopefully your daily cost for internet will go down significantly when you have service to your house!!! $4 for an hour traumatized me just reading it!
Welcome to my city!
The weather is much colder at the moment than it should be, it’s very strange. One piece of advice if you want to save money on transport: Oyster cards! Instead of ?3.00 for a single in zone 1, it’s only ?1.50; also they are capped, so that you never spend more than the price of a travelcard in one day (if you only take the tube twice, you’ll pay 3 pounds, but if you take it 6 times, you’ll still only pay ?5.40). Get Oysters for everyone, it saves so much time and hassle when taking the bus or the tube.
Your house sounds like a treat too =) I’m sure you’ll be happy here once the prices stop hurting so much. Kensignton High Street and Hyde Park are very pricey areas anyway, so you’ll soon find slightly cheaper places. Internet is generally ?1 an hour in internet cafes.
Once again, welcome to London!
Why isn’t the Euro in use in the UK? Educate me
Glad you arrived safely!
I have a friend who studied at Cambridge and said the exact same thing about the prices, that they seemed okay until she realized it was actually twice as much.
Hello, H. H.
We have said million times that we would visit you but…… this is the third country you moved to.
Really hope we can meet you in London soon. Enjoy yourself.
Ya-Huei & Yi-An
oh yay! you’ve finally arrived. i keep clicking on your website to see if you’ve posted anything.
your townhouse sounds so lovely. can’t wait to see pictures of it!
keep warm!
Why a house on the River Thames sounds splendid! Can’t wait to read all about your adventures in London. Enjoy
Glad to hear from you again! I am looking forward to all your London posts.
Glad to hear you arrived safely and are adjusting so quickly. I loved reading about your life in Viet Nam and I am really looking forward to reading about your adventures in London.
Missing you woman! Hurry back!!!!!!
Hooray! Welcome to London! I am envious!!
Hey, I’m not so great about checking in here, but I’m glad I did. Wonderful to hear you’re doing so well and that you’ve arrived in London.
Good luck getting adjusted and have fun with the new city.
wo0t! this sounds exciting!! i look forward to reading more about life in london!
Yay Hsien! Welcome to London! I’d been eagerly awaiting news of your arrival. Hope that settling in goes well and that you’ll soon be up and running and taking in everything. Now I’ve got an incentive to fly through London on my trips eastward…
Seems a lot like you are coping well. Welcome to Europe, Lei!
Looking forward to hearing about your many adventures in London! Your new place sounds heavenly! All the best settling in and hope to read you more frequently!
Welcome to London!!! Glad to hear you are already enjoying the delights of London and its price gauging. Sorry to hear about the sticker shock, but you’ll get used to it.
It’s a fun city and we look forward to visiting you soon.
Glad to hear you have landed safely! Hope the move goes smooth–your new house sounds lovely.
Wonderful to hear that you got into London and are exploring the place by walking! Great exercise as well. Good luck with moving in and getting settled!
Now you’re in London! Great!!! Hope you will settle down soon.
I was just thinking that I miss you over on LJ
Hope all is going well with settling in.
*notes how many readers are waiting with baited breath for the next post on Cotton-Pickin’ Days*
Unpacking everything and getting settled in takes what always felt to me like an eternity. I imagine by the time we get moved and settled and reconnected to the ‘net, you’ll be blogging madly once more!
[...] The prices - Everything in the U.S. feels like half the price or cheaper now that I live in London. Moaned about this already too. [...]
[...] January 2006 - In London! [...]